WiMAX provides fixed, portable or mobile non-line-of sight service from a base station to a subscriber station, also known as customer premise equipment (CPE).

Some goals for WiMAX include a radius of service coverage of 6 miles from a WiMAX base station for point-to-multipoint, non-line-of-sight (see following pages for illustrations and definitions) service. This service should deliver approximately 40 megabits per second (Mbps) for fixed and portable access applications.

That WiMAX cell site should offer enough bandwidth to support hundreds of businesses with T1 speeds and thousands of residential customers with the equivalent of DSL services from one base station.